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Blackhawk crew suspended for Halloween candy drop

by Jonn Lilyea••27

Pinto Nag sends us an article from USAToday which reports that some Arizona National Guard Blackhawk crew thought that it would be a good idea to fly over a residential area Phoenix and drop candy from their craft;

The aircrew on the UH-60 Black Hawk took off from the Papago Military Reservation, near Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on the south side of the city, Oct. 28 for a training mission in Deer Valley, on the north side of Phoenix.

On the way, the helicopter flew over the Arcadia neighborhood in central Phoenix and dropped the candy at a Halloween party, the Guard said.

The investigation involves crew members from the 2nd Battalion, 285th Aviation Regiment and is expected to be completed in 30 to 60 days, Arizona National Guard spokesman Maj. Gabe Johnson said Wednesday.

I guess the 4 crew members are reconsidering the genius of that little trick. Witnesses claim that the bird frightened children, another thought they were dropping drugs.

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27 thoughts on “Blackhawk crew suspended for Halloween candy drop”

  1. You know the really sad part about this? If it had been properly staged, as in advanced notice to the area and parents the candy was to be dropped, it would have been a great thrill for the kids. As it was…it was just a stupid stunt.

    Where the hell did common sense go?

  2. Let’s see, a Snickers bar at terminal velocity, mushes on some kid’s melon. Folks running for cover, digging foxholes in their neighbor’s new lawn sod or otherwise taking up defensive positions. Yea, that’s a plan! Now the VA will be flooded with kids and parents with injuries and half will have caught the PTSD from the trauma. Colonel Kurtz said it I think, “The…horror, the…Halloween horror!”

        1. Holy. SHIT. Jonn.

          , the parachute failed to deploy and the container crashed through the roof of a local school at nearly 100 miles per hour.

          Upon impact, the force of the rapidly settling candies caused the sides to explode outward, causing what physics professor Dr. Rosella Schwartz described as “essentially a 360 degree anti-personnel mine full of chocolate flechettes.”

          I am LMFAO…that’s *RICH*.

          😀 😀

  4. Witnesses claim that the bird frightened children, another thought they were dropping drugs.

    Yes, because drug dealers are well known for throwing thousands of dollars of their illicit product out of aircraft in the hopes of getting new people hooked on drugs. People who (assuming the first half of that asinine theory was true) would have no idea where to find a dealer to get another fix. Because that’s how the drug dealer do.

    1. My thought too. And what kids are frightened by helicopters? Certainly mine never were! Trains, plane, autos, tanks, emergency vehicles, they loved them all and still do.

  5. Agree with others cool idea, BUT should have been coordinated well in advance. Also some care should have been made so as to prevent terminal velocity of Snickers bars. Parachutes anyone ala the candy bombers during “Operation Vittles” aka the Berlin Airlift?

  7. If they were flying too low, burning lots of extra fuel, or violating air traffic patterns, I can definitely see a problem. Can’t really see it if they weren’t, though. They might not have excercised the best planning, but it ain’t exactly like they were shooting a porn scene while conducting human sacrifice in the back of the chopper. Would they be disciplined for doing the same thing in Iraq?

    Then again, my POV is outside looking in.

  9. Hey those skittle commercials always show it raining Skittles and now some guys are in trouble for trying to make it rain Skittles?

    What the hell? Next you’ll be telling that some of those moms were looking for Mr. Goodbars…

  10. “another thought they were dropping drugs.”

    Man, I live in Phoenix but must be the wrong neighborhood. Nobody ever helicopters in free drugs for me, goddammit.

      1. Okay, I admit I liked Necco Wafers, especially the black ones. Those and Bit O’ Honey were my favorites in the sundry packs. If you’re going to knock something it should be the tropical chocolate bars. They didn’t melt in your hands, didn’t melt in your mouth, and didn’t melt in your stomach. Talk about shittin’ a brick. The stuff was so bad that when we threw it to kids the kids threw it back.

  13. Well shit, if it was okay for the candy bomber to drop parachutes with candy to kids during the Berlin Airlift, what’s the problem here? Well other than not using mini parachutes. Please tell me the crew was commissioned trash and not warrant officers.

  15. I’ll be honest: I think that’s the coolest (and by “cool”, I mean “charitable/nice”) thing you could ever do with a helicopter on Halloween.

    Really unfortunate the way things are going for them, it was a nice thing of those guys to do.

  16. So, if you’re a helicopter pilot and drop candy from your chopper, you get punished.

    If you shoot a video and a calendar in military vehicles, you lose your leadership position and get slammed, forced to pay for fuel, and blamed for the whole thing.

    If you’re deployed to Afghanistan and get a pink slip, according to Odierno, he’s trying to tell you as far out as possible that when you come home, you have to find a job (within those precious first couple of months where the suicide rate exceeds norms during post-deployment), you’re not even given the time to readjust to being home before starting to process.

    But, if you’re a flag officer and sexually assault a subordinate for 10-20 years, you just get “retired” for all your years of “outstanding service”?

    Yep, sounds like typical “military justice” to me….

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